The field of the disclosure relates generally to aircraft landing gear assemblies, and more specifically, to aircraft landing gear assemblies that include a housing and a shrink link assembly positioned within the housing.
At least some known aircraft include landing gear assemblies including an outer cylinder and an inner cylinder positioned therein. The inner cylinder slides within the outer cylinder, via a shrink link assembly, to deploy or retract a wheel assembly. However the length of travel of the inner cylinder may be limited by the shape of the outer cylinder and the configuration of the shrink link assembly. Furthermore, the shape of at least some known outer cylinders restricts access to the inner cylinder, which may increase the complexity, and therefore the costs and duration, of required maintenance on the inner cylinder. Additionally, at least some known shrink link assemblies are connected to the inner cylinder using intermediary components, such as cranks and gears that form an offset torsion load path through the shrink link assembly. Such a offset load paths may load components of the shrink link assembly or other components of the landing gear assembly under high forces. These high forces may lead to a shortened service lifetime of the components or may lead to larger components that increase the weight of the aircraft.